So, the Heartless Libertarian takes a break from his PhD research regimen to ask a question...
"How much do you know about Garand malfunctions?"
"And whether they indicate the need to replace parts?"
"Took my Garand out yesterday for a test fire. Firing the sixth round, the op-rod went all the way back, but the bolt didn't. The two got disengaged, leaving the bolt about .5-.75" back from the chamber, with the right locking lug wedged against the op rod, which was all the way back and popped out of the track."
"The resident old fogey (very cool, 3gun Master in He-Man/Heavy Metal division), retired USAF rifle team type (from back in the M1/M14 days) said it probably needs a new op-rod. My limited Garand experience and google-fu is inclined to agree."
"On the plus side of a possibly bad thing, since my is post-WWII ('53 IHA), date-correct parts are cheaper. Like $50-80 cheaper, $120 vs up to $200."
That started up something of a give-and-take on that topic. I responded, "Sounds like the op-rod is either bent, or worn. Doesn't take much of a bend, usually the result of someone disassembling incorrectly. A bend can be fixed, for that matter worn can too (by a *really* skilled gunsmith), but better to replace it if it's worn, since the work to replace the metal is going to be expensive. If it was an early war, or Winchester or something, then I might consider repair. Post-war gun that missed Korea and mebbe shot at some commies in Greece? Replace."
To which Heartless came back with, "That's what I was figuring. If clumsy disassembly/assembly can bend it, there's a decent chance I munged it up myself. Oops.""One slightly odd thing is that, near as I can read the numbers, the barrel is a 1943 SA. But IHA didn't start building rifles til '53, and my SN is 4,6XX,XXX - really low on their SN range. Not sure who made the op-rod, but all the spares listed as post-war I've found for sale are SA."
There was some desultory chit-chat not relevant to this post, then Heartless said, "My Garand's history is uncertain, at least to me. I bought it from a gun store in Yakima (also bought my mixmaster Ithaca-RemRand 1911 there). I assume it came from CMP at some point, but who knows? Whether it belonged to the Greeks, the RoKs, some random NG unit, I have no clue.
Anyway, I ordered a new op-rod. $145 plus shipping. They also had some for $110, but the $145 ones spec'd a little better, so I went with that. And my depot special gets a bit more mongrel-ish."
Heartless took a picture of the new op-rod and the old one, which are the top two rods in the pic above, adding the comment, " I think I found the cause of the malfunction."
I said, "Well, that’s interesting... “worn”… almost looks like someone peened it on purpose, though I can’t imagine why. Of course, now I’m going to grab my Garand brothers and look at *their* rods. Especially the Winchester, which did WWII and Korea, and was left with the Koreans. Yanno, one of those unimaginably dangerous M1s that notorious gun-nut Bill Clinton let the Koreans export to the US. Thank god his wife saved us from another flood of those easily-concealed hi-cap cop-killers!"
Never having had the kind of malfunction Heartless described, I'd never really taken a look at my Garand's op-rods - singly, much less all together. So, I grabbed my boys, field-stripped 'em and took a pic that is under Heartless' op-rod pic. All three of my rods are SA, and in order, top to bottom, they came from the SA, Winchester, and H&R rifles - all of which are mongrels, though my Winchester does at least have a WRA (Winchester Repeating Arms) trigger group to match the receiver. That being the one that came from Korea, that's almost certain just random luck...
Heartless came back with "I'm a regular PM magazine! Nothing like learning what to look for by dealing with broken things.If'n those RoK rifles ever do show up, I'll have to bust into the savings account and buy at least one...I got two M1 carbines from the last load the CMP had. One is marked FAT (Italian marking, though I forget what it means) and I think the other one is Italian as well."
Given the geekiness that leapt from the comments in Boq's post on Garands last week, I decided to toss this up here and let you sink your teeth into this one.
They issued the litle plastic pots of Lubriplate for a reason, and the locking lug and camming surface of the op rod were key points to be lubricated. Failure to do so could make a tough job even harder.
Op-rod misalignement could contribute. Remember, the Op-rod is NOT STRAIGHT, but has several critical bends to get the energy from the centerline gas cylinder transmitted back about 20 inches and displaced about an inch to the side and up about 3/4 inch, while the tab at the back of the Op-rod has to be properly aligned (and fitted) to ride in the track for it on the receiver. "Rewelded" receivers are especially prone to problems, but we seldom see those any more, but sometimes they pop up and sucker people who do not look closely.
Excessive force on the Op-rod might also injure the delicate nose on the camming surface, either from oversize gas port, excessively snug gas piston or excessive pressure ammunition.
The malfunction you describe is either of the two problems noted above. A bent op-rod, or a worn one.
With a worn operating rod, the corners of the tab will look peened like that, and if you have a cam that has worn as well, then jumping the bolt can occur. Gun shows can be good places to find operating rods without too much wear on them. You can find them at places like Numrich for between a hundred and hundred and fifty bucks.
If your operating rod is bent, you will sometimes see gouges in the inside of the gas piston, and very often on the side of the operating rod. But it has to be pretty bent to jump the cam.
Operating rods in the M-1 Carbine wear out fairly frequently. Especially when you slap an M-2 converter kit in it (full auto). Not that I would know about such things.....
Wear on the tab might have contributed - I haven't measured the one on the damaged rod, and I don't feel like pulling the rifle apart (again) to measure the new one. But the rifle cycles quite smoothly with the replacement rod.